Business

SummerWorks2009, a Kentuckiana Works initiative that is a federally funded stimulus program, provided temporary employment for 521 young people throughout the state – including 49 from Shelby County.

In addition to employment, the program, funded by $1.4 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also provided work readiness skills to young adults age 16-24 in Bullitt, Jefferson and Shelby counties.

Another family-owned business in Shelbyville has drawn the attention of an outside company.

Ledco, the Solomon family’s interior door-manufacturing company for nearly 50 years, has been acquired by Masonite Inc. of Tampa, an international manufacturer of residential and commercial doors with customers in more than 85 countries.

Turner Insurance Agency of Shelbyville has been appointed an independent agent for AAA.

“For more than a century, AAA has been a leader in automotive safety and travel services,” agency owner Kurt Turner said in announcing the connection. “But they’re also a leader in auto and home insurance.”

Two of the three local Shell gas stations have been sold, but the new owners have yet to be identified.

An employee at Road Ranger's corporate headquarters confirmed that the stations on Taylorsville Road and Midland Trail have been sold, but said she does not know who the new owners are or how long the two stations will be closed.

A sign on the door at the Taylorsville Road Shell says, "Closed for Inventory," and the clerk inside declined to talk to a reporter.

Any of the more than 800 visitors to the Chamber of Commerce’s Community Showcase, entitled, “Grow with Shelby County,” would agree that event was even bigger and better than last year.

The exhibits and booths spilled out of the Shelby County High School gym into the school’s foyer and even into the parking lot, where a Farm Safety demonstration was put on by Judy White, who has a dairy farm in Southville, and Jessica Woods, a 4-H horse leader who brought one of her horses to the event.

Christmas shoppers across the country and the world have probably laid eyes on material made in Shelby County without ever realizing it.

If you’ve shopped at Victoria’s Secret, you have probably seen the plastic display shelves containing makeup. Maybe you can recall the plastic open/close sign you see when entering a Big O Tires. Europeans may have seen the giant plastic European-style Santa Claus Lego figure resting atop display shelves of the popular toy.